


The boy in the water

by LetheSomething



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Angst, Drowning, Fluff, Ghosts, Halloween, Horror, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, One Shot, Psychological Horror, Romance, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 22:10:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8419168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetheSomething/pseuds/LetheSomething
Summary: It was the third night sleeping in Makoto's bed, when it dawned on Sousuke that something was very, very wrong. 
  A long SouMako romance / psychological horror... thing set in a dark alternate Iwatobi timeline.
  
  Lots of fluff, tons of angst. No actual porn.





	1. A meeting

Iwatobi seemed to Sousuke like a town stuck in time.   
He hadn't been here in 16 years but it looked much the same as it did then, when Rin lived here for a while, taking on his grandmothers address for one of his hair-brained schemes.  
It was the kind of town where nothing ever happens. Where a couple breaking up is all everyone talks about for weeks on end, because what else would they discuss?   
Rin would call it 'quiet', but it wasn't, really. The sound of crashing waves permeated the place, a constant noise in the background, wherever you went.  
It irritated Sousuke to no end.

“Dude, will you relax?” Rin elbowed him as they walked across the warm sand on a late August day, “I asked you here so you could lose some of that stress of yours, but you're just moping.”  
“I don't trust seagulls and I have sand between my fucking toes,” Sousuke said and his friend giggled before dramatically tilting his head back to breathe in the sea air.   
“Ahhhhhh”, he sighed, “so fresh. So clean.”  
Sousuke shoved him and he swayed theatrically, snorting.   
When he straightened up, something caught his interest.

“Tachibana? Holy crap!”  
Rin sped off towards a figure in the distance. His apparent target was a young man walking the kind of big, fluffy dog that Sousuke had always associated with families and warmth.  
He broke into a jog to keep up.  
The dog bounded towards Rin, barking and wagging its tail, seemingly happy for all the excitement while its owner came running after.   
“Hello little buddy.” Rin stopped to give the dog a pat and immediately shrank back when it shook sand all over him.  
“Oi Shiro, don't run off like that! I'm so sorry, sir.” The young man trotted up to his dog, who was now trying to lick a giggling Rin in the face.  
“It's ok, it's probably his fault,” Sousuke said, approaching.   
The young man looked up at him and Sousuke, for just a second, felt his stomach drop.   
The dude was... well he was hot. There was no denying that. He was tall, with broad shoulders and light brown hair, deep green eyes and the kind of tan you get from being outdoorsy.   
He looked like he gave amazing hugs, Sousuke thought, and a million scenario's immediately clicked into gear in the back of his head.  
His shock must have been apparent because the man, tilting his head a little, gave him a small, reassuring smile.

“Yo, Tachibana, don't you remember me?” Rin got up and shot him a toothy grin.  
“Wh- Rin?” There was a short pause while Tachibana's eyes glazed over, but it passed in a second and he cheerfully held up his hand.  
“Matsuoka Rin! Wow, it's been a while. I saw you on tv the other day. What are you doing here?”  
“Visiting my gran,” Rin said.  
“Ohh, of course, Mrs. Matsuoka had that fall, didn't she,” Tachibana said.   
“She's better now,” Rin said, “This is Sousuke, by the way. He's my friend.”  
Sousuke gave a little nod. “Yamazaki Sousuke, nice to meet you.”  
“Tachibana Makoto.”   
The young man smiled and it made his whole face light up.  
Shit, Sousuke thought.  
To stop himself staring, he dropped his gaze to the dog, who was bouncing around the three of them  
It looked like a golden retriever, the light coloured kind. Still pretty young, Sousuke estimated, and easily excitable. He petted it while the other two chatted about the weather and the condition of Mrs. Matsuoka.   
It was a friendly sort, this dog. Sousuke ended up roughhousing with it and before long he was keeled over in the sand, the pup on top of him.   
“Shiro! God, I'm so sorry,” Tachibana pulled him off, looking mortified.  
“We're just playing,” Sousuke smiled, dusting himself off while Rin sniggered in the background.   
“So Tachibana,” Sousuke said, taking the man's offered hand and pulling himself up, “You a local, huh?”  
Tachibana nodded.  
“You know of a good bar around here?” Sousuke asked, and he could feel Rin rolling his eyes behind his back.

 

* * *

 

Sousuke drank. More than he should, he realized.   
He drank because the pain in his shoulder made it hard to fall asleep, and then he barely slept because of the alcohol in his blood stream.   
It was an unfortunate cycle, he realized. Any bump in the night would wake him and right now he was lying in an old wooden house by the seaside.   
Pretty much everything went bump in the night.   
Or it creaked.   
Or rustled.   
Sousuke groaned and stared at the ceiling.   
Some animal was crying in the distance. Probably a bird? He could hear the lapping of the waves as if they were right next to his ear. He highly preferred Tokyo, he thought, the soft drone of cars was way easier to deal with than this.   
On the futon across the room, Rin was sleeping like a baby.   
After ten more minutes of staring at wooden slats and listening to things squeak eerily, Sousuke got up.

 

He walked across the sand, trying to let the sound of waves calm him instead of getting worked up over it.   
Wasn't the sea supposed to be soothing?  
It was a beautiful night, after all. Few clouds in the sky, half moon blinking down at him.   
The wind was mild at this time of year and he breathed in deeply, as Rin had done, trying to get as much healthy air as he could while ignoring how empty everything felt around here.  
He hadn't been to Iwatobi for so long. It felt... weird.   
The whole town had an eerie lifelessness to it. Even on a beautiful summer night, there was an undercurrent of sadness flowing through.   
Maybe he'd been a city boy for too long, he thought, and there were simply not enough people here for him to consider normal.

Walking along, he saw a figure sitting on the beach.   
He tucked his chin in the collar of his jacket and kept walking.   
A bark made him look up. The floofy dog, Shiro, was playing in the waves.   
Up closer, he saw that the mysterious figure was Tachibana, just sitting there.   
“Hey,” he said, approaching.  
Tachibana looked up and blinked.   
“Yamazaki-kun,” said politely, “Couldn't sleep?”  
“Too much noise around here,” Sousuke grumbled, “You?”  
“Just walking Shiro,” Tachibana said.  
“At two in the morning?”  
The boy smiled apologetically and rubbed the back of his neck.   
“Can I join you?” Sousuke asked.  
Tachibana nodded and leaned back on his hands while Sousuke sat down, trying to get comfortable in the loose sand. Shiro came by to sniff at him, but was quickly distracted by a passing moth.

“How is she really? Mrs. Matsuoka,” Tachibana asked, staring straight ahead at the waves washing ashore.  
“She's ok,” Sousuke said, “never met a more stubborn woman in my life.”  
Tachibana grinned at that.   
Fuck, he looked good when he smiled. Sousuke had to look away to even be able to think.  
“She's recovering well,” he went on. “Rin's here because she won't move into any one of her kid's houses. They take turns checking on her to make sure she doesn't go, I dunno, pearl diving or whatever.”  
“I'm glad to hear that,” Tachibana said. “I should visit her and bring some lunch.”  
“I can assure you, we get plenty,” Sousuke said.   
Seriously, half the town was at that woman's doorstep every other day.   
“Countryside,” he grunted, making Tachibana giggle.  
“It is very small around here,” he conceded, “Do you live in Tokyo, Yamazaki-kun?”  
Sousuke nodded. “You ever been?”  
“Briefly,” Tachibana said. And with that they fell silent, the both of them watching the waves roll in, and the dog trot back and forth, while the stars turned overhead.

Sousuke tried hard not to steal too many glances at the man next to him, green eyes glinting just a little in the glow of the moon. As with the town, there was a sadness to him, too, something heavy and weary that wasn't apparent in the bright light of day.   
Sousuke really wanted to see him smile again. He tried to think of funny things to say but came up empty. Humor had never been his forte.   
Eventually tiredness started pulling on his eyelids and he gave up.

“I should go back,” he said, crawling onto his feet, “Rin's gonna freak out if he finds me gone.”  
Tachibana nodded. “Good idea.”  
He got up and called out to the dog.  
“Goodnight, Yamazaki-kun. It was nice talking to you again.”   
Sousuke waved and started to walk off when he found his steps faltering.   
Let's be real, he was never going to have this chance again.   
He turned around and swallowed.   
“Hey Tachibana,” he said and the young man looked up from fussing over his dog, “Wanna go out for a drink tomorrow? You know, to, uh, chat or whatever.”  
“With Rin?”  
“Uh, sure.” Sousuke nearly groaned.   
But Tachibana smiled and that made it all ok somehow.   
“That sounds like fun,” he said, “I'll drop by Mrs. Matsuoka's.”  
“Nice.” Sousuke turned around, closing his fist in the pocket of his jacket in a small gesture of victory.

 

* * *

 

“Wait, when did you and Tachibana decide we're hanging out tonight?”  
Rin was squinting at him over the plate he was drying.   
“Ah, we chatted a bit,” Sousuke said, unable to suppress a grin while his hand explored a tub of soapy water looking for a missing spoon.   
Rin leaned his back against the counter and gave him a side eye.  
“You sure you want me to come too?” he said nonchalantly.  
“Of course, he's your old acquaintance,” Sousuke said.  
“And he's just your type.”   
Sousuke could feel Rin's sharp grin radiate at him without looking up.   
“He's expecting you to be there,” he said.  
“Alright then,” Rin said, “We'll go and paint the town.”  
“Whatever part of this town there is to be painted,” Sousuke grumbled, and Rin kicked him in the back of the leg.

 

“So, give me the goods”, Sousuke huffed later that day as they were digging up a patch of the old woman's garden, “Anything I should know?”  
“Dude, we went to elementary together for a year,” Rin said, “What the hell kind of goods am I going to give you? I haven't seen him in years.”  
When Sousuke just looked at him, he sighed: “Ok, he's got, or had, two younger siblings I think. Family type, friendly sort, big brother vibe. Kind of protective...”  
Rin seemed to ponder for a while. “Look”, he finally said, “just be careful, ok? Dude's always had a bit of a big heart.”  
“Well well, look who's suddenly worried about breaking hearts,” Sousuke smirked.  
“Shut up,” Rin said, and he threw a wad of seaweed at him.   
Of the two of them, Rin was definitely the one with the longest trail of exes.   
In his own words, he was winning.  
But he did look worried as he tucked some of his red hair behind his ear and got back to digging.

 

Tachibana showed up at eight, carrying entirely too much food, courtesy of his parents.   
“Oh, Mako-chan, you shouldn't have!” The old lady fussed over him while he kept politely bowing and refusing any offer of tea.   
“Are you boys going out?” she asked Rin, who was putting on his shoes.   
“Yes nana, we're just going for a drink and a chat,” Rin said, getting up and kissing her forehead.   
She gave the three of them a mild smile.   
“Good,” she said, “That's good.”  
“You going to be ok?”   
“Don't worry about me, Rinrin.” Nana Matsuoka swatted him off her and they left, walking up the steps to Tachibana's tiny car while the woman followed their trail through a window.

 

The bar they went to was fairly quiet and entirely not hip enough for Rin, who slumped on a wooden bench and eyed his beer with suspicion.  
They talked about work, and life.   
Rin had been a swimmer. Always a little too temperamental to win international competitions, but good enough to make it to the pro's for a while.   
Mostly, he had been talented enough to be picked up for modeling and acting gigs once the general audience got a taste of him. He'd switched to entertainment fairly quickly when it became apparent that he was never going to make it to the Olympics, though Sousuke always thought he'd had more potential.   
They tended to skirt the topic, since it always seemed to pain Rin.   
And really, Sousuke couldn't talk. He'd ruined his own damn shoulder trying too hard to get better.   
So he drank his beer and silently listened to Rin talk about celebrities for an hour, until the cheerful pop tune that was his ring tone interrupted them.

“Hmm?” Rin said into the device, “What, now?”  
He got up to talk outside, leaving Sousuke and Tachibana sitting across the table from each other, staring awkwardly at their drinks.   
Tachibana was wearing a dress shirt, Sousuke noticed, and looking rather good in it.   
Rin had been right, of course. This man fell straight into the center of 'things Sousuke likes', from the soft tone of his voice to the mild demeanor and the wide shoulders. His hair even took on a warm glow in the dim light of the room, like it was trying to make a point.   
Sousuke wondered if drinking more would make him regain his composure, or make this even worse.

“So, you also a swimmer, Tachibana?” he ventured, feeling like he should at least make conversation before slinking back into inevitable loneliness.   
The young man smiled softly – such a beautiful, almost sad smile – and shook his head.   
“I picked up basketball in middle school,” he said, “and I've been playing it ever since.”  
Sousuke chuckled: “You're certainly tall enough for it.”  
They chatted about sports and local attractions for a while, until Rin came back and announced he had somewhere he desperately needed to be.   
He waggled his eyebrows at Sousuke before putting on his jacket.   
“It's been fun talking to you again, Makoto,” he babbled, “please take care of my friend for me. He gets lost easily.”  
And off he was, leaving behind a proverbial dust cloud while Sousuke and Tachibana blinked at each other.   
Subtle, Rin. Very subtle, Sousuke thought.  
“Another beer?” he said.   
Tachibana nodded.

They talked about Tokyo, where Sousuke worked as a sports commenter. It was a nice enough job, he told Tachibana, but the hours were ridiculous and he rarely seemed to do anything but work.  
Tachibana, meanwhile, had been in the city to study. He'd wanted to become a PE teacher, but found himself returning to Iwatobi after only three weeks. He was now trying to finish his degree via long distance courses, while working part-time at the local supermarket to pay the rent.  
“I must sound really boring to someone like you, Yamazaki-kun,” he said softly.   
Sousuke shrugged. “You're figuring out life while basking in the nice sea air.”   
And Tachibana smiled that soft, sad smile of his.

 

When they walked out of the bar several hours later, the salty air hit Sousuke's alcohol addled brain like a hammer. He stumbled, and the strong arms of Tachibana gripped his shoulders.   
“Easy there, Yamazaki-kun,” he said, and his voice was so close Sousuke needed to blink to make sure he was awake.  
“Sorry 'bout that.” He stood up straight but Tachibana's arm was still around him, gently guiding him toward the car. Sousuke didn't mind at all.   
Tachibana drove him back to Nana Matsuoka's and sent him off with a pat on his shoulder trailing slightly too long as he searched Sousuke's face for... god knows what.   
Large parts of Sousuke's brain, mostly the ones soaked in beer, were telling him to just go in for the kiss but he didn't want to scare the guy. For someone so tall and broad, Tachibana seemed oddly fragile in the moonlight and whenever he looked at Sousuke he was wearing that Mona Lisa smile that he couldn't quite put his finger on.   
So Sousuke grumpily traipsed into the house, kiss-less, while salt air and alcohol whirled through his head in a murky maelstrom. In the guest room, Rin was already in bed, ostensibly sleeping with a large grin on his face.   
Sousuke sank between the covers slipped into unconsciousness.   
He dreamed of storms, of ships breaking apart and bodies clinging to flotsam.  
He woke up a few hours later and stared at the ceiling, listening to the waves, the creaks and Rin's soft breathing across the room.

 

* * *

 

The next morning he politely declined Rin's offer to go shopping with him and his gran. Instead, he put on his running shoes and made his way down the beach again.   
The air was better now, clearing is head of the lasts mists of sleep while he jogged along. Like he had half hoped, he found Shiro the dog padding through the surf.   
Soon after, he saw Tachibana.  
The young man was wearing shorts and a hoodie and looking delectable.   
He smiled when he saw him approach and with a pang in his gut Sousuke realized he only had a few days to make something happen.   
“That dog gets a lot of walks,” he remarked, mentally kicking himself for the stupid subject.   
But Tachibana just smiled and invited him in for tea.

 

Sousuke let out a low whistle when he entered Tachibana's house. It was a nice middle-class two story building with a small fenced-in garden.   
“How the heck do you afford something like this on part-time shopkeeper pay?” Sousuke commented as he sat down at the low table in the living room. Large windows looked out onto the porch and the garden, where Shiro the dog was currently sprawled on a small lawn.  
“The rent here is very cheap,” Tachibana said softly. He walked into the adjacent kitchen and came back with some barley tea.   
They sat and chatted about dog care, about music, about a million things for the next three hours.  
Every now and then one of them would lean in to grab some more tea and in a stroke of luck their hands would touch, sending sparks straight to Sousuke's spine as he tried to think of some plan on how to proceed next. He was far from inexperienced at the hookup game, but Tachibana seemed so innocent. Coming on to him too strong felt like corruption.

Tachibana looked at the clock.  
“Oh,” he said with a small frown, “My apologies, but my shift starts soon.”  
“Right, of course. I'm sorry for taking up all your time,” Sousuke replied, getting up.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, he was letting this slip through his hands.   
Sousuke could already see himself going back, filled to the brim with annoyance. He was going to spend the night drinking while Rin laughed at him.   
Tachibana took the glasses to the kitchen and Sousuke followed with the nearly empty bottle.  
Act, Sousuke, _act_.  
“Would you... like to do this again?” Sousuke blurted out.  
“Hmm?” Tachibana looked up from the sink with a mild look of surprise.  
“Look, don't take this the wrong way,” Sousuke continued.   
There was no point in stopping now. If it all went wrong he'd just go back home and forget this ever happened.  
“But... I'm very into you, and if you want me to back off, now is the-”   
He fell quiet when Tachibana's hand trailed his side and his face was suddenly very close, green eyes staring at him from above that indecipherable smile of his.  
“I don't want you to back off,” Tachibana said softly and Sousuke leaned forward, lips brushing lightly before his arms reeled him in and he found himself in a deep kiss.

Fuck, Tachibana was a great kisser. When they separated to take a breath, it felt like a part of Sousuke had been amputated. He wanted so much more than that, and from the bulge in Tachibana's shorts, he did too.   
But the young man cast his eyes down and chuckled apologetically.   
“I... really need to go to work,” he said.   
“Oh, right,” Sousuke swallowed thickly and took a step back. “I, uh, I should let you get to that.”  
Tachibana looked at him through hooded eyes and languidly ran a finger along Sousuke's jaw.  
“I get off at six,”, he said, “would you like to come over for dinner?”  
Sousuke blinked once, slowly, eyes widening.   
“Alright,” he croaked.

With that, Tachibana let him out and Sousuke jogged, no, _sprinted_ , full tilt, all the way back to Nana Matsuoka's, where he took a shower and downed half a bottle of whiskey in an effort to stop the entire host of fireworks in his head. His blood seemed intent on bursting from his veins. There was heat in his gut and fuzzy static all through his limbs and he had to wait eight fucking hours before he could do anything about it.   
With a groan, he fell backwards onto Mrs. Matsuoka's couch.

 

* * *

 

That evening, he gussied himself up and sent Rin a text not to wait for him while he walked the mountain road, slightly too fast, to Iwatobi town.  
He quietly thanked his ancestors for the gift of mobile data, because at least Google Maps worked, even out here.  
Opening the door, Tachibana was obviously just as nervous as he was. He kept apologetically rubbing the back of his neck as he let him in and presented him the table with two store-bought bentos and more barley tea.  
“I'm a terrible cook,” Tachibana explained, “and I didn't really have time to prepare.”  
“Maybe next time I'll cook for you,” Sousuke babbled and there was the tiniest of giggles from Tachibana, a sound so pure that he felt his heart stop for a moment.   
They sat down to eat and for a minute or so, everything was awkward again, the two of them struggling to figure out what to say while the dog observed them lazily from a big pillow in the corner.  
Then Tachibana made a comment on his favourite type of sushi and the air returned to the room.   
Here, sitting across the table from him, Tachibana was all warmth and light. He was so easy to talk with, even for a grumpy, stressed-out alcoholic like Sousuke.   
He was comfortable, like that old blanket you would never, ever throw away, no matter how many holes it accumulated, and Sousuke was already getting hopelessly attached.

When he finally kissed Tachibana again, it was everything.   
He was a great kisser, but he was also, Sousuke found out that night, not the innocent country bumpkin he had been imagining. More than anything, Tachibana was just as desperate as he was.   
When they made love that night (not fuck, nothing so crass) it was slow and intense.  
The look of genuine desire on that man's face was the most beautiful thing Sousuke had ever seen and it spurred him on to make him beg and keen for more.

“Will you stay the night?” Makoto asked softly while they lay in a heap on the bed, Sousuke's face buried in the crook of his neck.   
“There's no way I'll make it back to Matsuoka's in the dark,” Sousuke mumbled.   
Makoto chuckled, a soft, warm rumble that gave him goosebumps.   
He pulled the covers over them and they drifted off into sleep.

 

Makoto's house was a little further up the hill, away from the coast.   
The sound of the sea was softer here, but it still seeped into Sousuke's ears.   
He dreamed of water again.   
He went out into the sea, surfing under the warm sun when the world turned upside down. His board sprang away and the waves became higher and higher, crashing on top of him. A white shawl drifted past as the black water pulled at him. Someone was screaming nearby and he sank, cold liquid pouring over him as his lungs started to burn.

Sousuke woke up in the middle of the night and found he couldn't breathe.  
He thrashed around, struggling desperately until suddenly the pressure was gone and he jolted up, gulping air.  
Dear god, he really needed to stop drinking so much whiskey.   
After a few deep breaths, he managed to calm down.   
Out in the garden, Shiro was howling but Tachibana next to him snored softly, apparently dead to the world.  
What Sousuke wouldn't give to be able to sleep like that.   
He rolled his neck and sank back in the pillows, warming up his sweat-cold skin before turning over and putting an arm around Tachibana.  
He nuzzling the back of his neck. It earned him a muffled hum and Sousuke fell asleep again, grinning.

 

When he woke up that morning, the deep brown eyes of a golden retriever were staring at him.   
The dog barked and licked his face, making him wrinkle his nose.   
The smell of coffee wafted up from the stairwell and he sat up, feeling sore.  
Once he'd shuffled down to the tiny kitchen, he found Makoto attempting to fry eggs.  
Active word: attempting.  
Everyone needed a weakness, Sousuke thought, and he gently laid a hand on Makoto's shoulder, taking over the pan.  
He got to work while the young man laid the table, apologizing several times.  
“I did say I'd cook for you,” Sousuke grinned.  
They sat and ate breakfast, basking in the light streaming through the windows.  
He could get used to this, Sousuke thought.  
“You working again?” he asked.  
Makoto nodded. “I need to leave for the midday shift in a few hours, but I have tomorrow off,” he said.

 

They walked Shiro down to the harbor. Makoto told him about all the different fishing boats sailing off in the early morning, while Sousuke feverishly plotted the rest of his stay.   
He had to go back to Tokyo in two days.  
“You know, if it's a nice day tomorrow, we could do the beach thing and go swimming,” Sousuke said, “Do you know any good spots around here?”  
“I, uh, don't swim,” Makoto said, rubbing his lower arm, “I don't like big bodies of water.”  
“Oh. We'll find something else then,” Sousuke shrugged, “shopping maybe?”  
“Much as I appreciate the gesture, Sousuke, shouldn't you be spending time with Rin?” Makoto asked tentatively.  
“I see Rin plenty,” Sousuke said, “he dragged me here to help with chores, I'm fairly certain. We get along best if we're not constantly in each other's hair.”   
Sousuke coughed.   
“So I could. I mean, if you want to, uh, hang out.”  
And Makoto gave him that sad smile again, before softly brushing the back of his hand with his.   
“That sounds nice,” he said.

 

* * *

 

That evening, Sousuke prepared dinner in Makoto's kitchen while the dog sat next to him begging for scraps.   
“That smells amazing,” Makoto said, curling his arms around Sousuke's waist. “What do you want me to do?”  
“Open the wine and take a seat?” Sousuke suggested.   
“You're spoiling me,” Makoto chuckled lowly into Sousuke's hair and it ran shivers down his spine.

This time they barely managed to put away the dishes before they collapsed in a tangle of limbs on the couch. Makoto's lips were warm and eager and the way he kept saying 'Sousuke' in breathy, greedy whispers made his blood boil.   
When they finally made it out of the bath and into bed it was midnight.   
Sousuke lay there in the embrace of Makoto, content to listen to his soft breaths next to his ear.

 

Sousuke dreamed.   
He was running through the hallway at his office, on the way to the tv studio. It was starkly empty. Usually a crowd of people walked through this hall, talking or rushing or yelling.   
It should be quiet, but there was a loud rumbling all around him.   
At the end of the hallway, the doors burst open and water came pouring out.   
A torrent of ice cold, black water washed over him and carried him away as he fought to stay afloat, grabbing at whatever floated by: papers, jackets, a white shawl and even a filing cabinet.   
Someone screamed something and he felt like he should recognize that voice.   
But it drifted farther and farther away as he sank into the black water.

Sousuke woke up and couldn't breathe.   
Panicking, he tried to sit up, but it felt like something was perched on his chest, keeping out all the air.  
He flailed, managing to hit Makoto next to him. The young man stirred and the pressure lifted.  
Sousuke gasped, drinking in deep breaths while his lungs burned.   
They hadn't hurt like that in a long time, not since he stopped swimming competitively. He could only hold his breath for so long, these days.   
He sat there for a moment, just breathing while his heart rate went down, and noticed that Shiro was whimpering in the hallway.   
There was another sound somewhat farther away, but Sousuke couldn't really put his finger on it.   
For a moment, he pondered getting up to investigate.   
He looked over at Makoto, who was sprawled halfway across the bed, deep in sleep.   
The young man was warm, radiating tranquility and Sousuke wanted nothing more than to just lie here next to him. He felt tired and weary, like all energy had drained from his body.   
He curled up with his head on Makoto's shoulder and drifted off again.

 

They spent the next day together, shopping in a nearby city while Rin sent sassy texts demanding pictures. They ate dinner in a fish restaurant Makoto liked, and when they got home they had a lot of sex, but possibly not quite enough sex. 

Now they lay in bed, Sousuke propped between Makoto’s legs while he pressed small kisses up the back of his neck.   
Shiro was in a corner, snoring. In the background, the waves crashed onto the beach in the steady rhythm that was always there.  
“Do you like it here?” Sousuke asked.   
“I’ve always lived here,” Makoto replied.  
“You never wanted to live somewhere else? Paris, New York, the next city over?”  
Makoto chuckled into his hair. “Sometimes,” he said.  
“Isn’t it weird to not like the sea, but live right next to it?”  
“I don’t mind the sea, Sousuke, I just don’t want to be in it.”  
“Makes sense, I suppose,” Sousuke muttered, and he reached up his good arm to run his fingers through Makoto’s hair.   
“The water is alive,” Makoto said softly, “as soon as you dive in, it bares its fangs. Someone once told me that.”  
“I never really thought of it like that,” Sousuke said.  
“You wouldn’t,” Makoto replied and Sousuke looked back to see him smiling that sad smile of his, briefly, before he leaned in for a kiss.

 

That night, sleeping in Makoto's bed for the third time, it dawned on Sousuke that something was very, very wrong.  
He hadn't touched a drop of alcohol all day.  
This usually made him cranky, but he was willing to try it for Makoto, who seemed easily worried by these things.   
He'd also hoped it would put a stop to the nightmares.  
It didn't.

He was on a boat. Something that looked like a fishing schooner with the entire crew running on deck, working like mad. Rain was pouring down and wind whipped it into his face while the ship teetered dangerously. Water kept spilling onto the deck and the crew desperately fought to haul it back off.   
Something white fluttered by and got caught on a railing.   
A shawl of some soft material. Cashmere?

And Sousuke knew what was coming.   
He listened for the scream but still couldn't make it out. It sounded like a child's voice.  
Now the water. He took a deep breath, bracing himself.  
A wall of it was heading towards the boat. A huge wave of black water towered above him.

A dog barked next to his head, jolting him awake.

Sousuke sat bolt upright in the dark bedroom, breath fast and shallow.  
The room felt weird and it smelled like brackish water.  
Shiro was sitting on the floor next to him, whining, and he softly laid a hand on her head.  
“Good girl,” he whispered.  
There was the sound of the sea, outside, and Makoto breathing softly next to him.   
And there was something else.

Out in the hallway he could clearly hear a noise. Was that... feet pattering? It sounded wet.  
Probably a leaking faucet, Sousuke thought to himself and he got up.  
He didn't particularly want to go out there, but at this point he was too freaked out to go back to sleep, heavenly boy next to him or no.   
Cautiously he stepped towards the bedroom door and slowly, very slowly, he opened it.   
While Makoto’s room was only illuminated by the lights on his alarm clock, the hallway had an uncovered window. A wide beam of moonlight streamed in.   
Sousuke nervously peeked into the hallway, ready to punch whatever intruder could be out there.   
Of course there was no one. He was about to go back to bed when he noticed it.   
Something glistened on the floor. A series of footsteps ran from the bedroom all the way to the bathroom down the hall. There were little puddles, as if someone had stepped out of the bath and ran into the next room to grab a towel.  
Looking closer, he could see that they were fairly small.  
Like a child's feet.

With a tight knot of dread in the pit of his stomach, Sousuke stepped out into the hallway and flicked on the light.  
The tiny puddles were still there.  
He swallowed thickly and followed them to the bathroom, picking up a broom on the way.  
Again, he turned on the light.   
There was no one here.  
Breathing a small sigh of relief, he looked for the source of the sound and found that yes, the tap on the bath was leaking.   
Maybe it was the dog leaving footprints after all.   
He reached down to turn off the faucet and felt movement behind him.   
Sousuke froze.   
He was certain he'd left Shiro in the bedroom. Absolutely 100% certain.

When he turned around, he saw no one.   
Scanning the room, he noted that the bathroom mirror had somehow fogged up.  
Slowly, and before Sousuke's wide eyes, a single word appeared in the condensation: “LEAVE”.

Sousuke swallowed.   
There was a storm inside his head, a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions fighting for dominance. One thing in particular was winning.  
He took a deep breath and pulled himself up to his full height.  
“Fuck. You.” he said in a low growl.

With that, he walked back to the bedroom, leaving the light in the hallway on.   
Inside, Makoto was still sleeping, undisturbed by the world outside.   
Shiro nuzzled his hand as he walked by, and he scratched the dog behind the ears.  
He crawled into bed and slung an arm around Makoto's waist.   
He deeply breathed in the scent of him, the light musk of his skin, mixed with mint from his body wash and a hint of dog. Makoto smelled lightly like the sea, but almost imperceptibly so. He mostly smelled like Makoto and, at this point in time, a little bit like Sousuke.  
“Fuck you,” he whispered to the room in general, before falling back to sleep.

 

Sousuke felt refreshed the next morning, better than he'd had all week.   
He cautiously stepped into the bathroom and found nothing out of the ordinary.   
Of course, Sousuke thought, getting under the shower. That was just a stupid dream.   
All that fresh air was messing with his mind.  
Still, he cooked bacon for breakfast and gave a whole strip to Shiro under the mildly disapproving frown of its owner.  
“We're buddies,” he told Makoto as he sipped his coffee, grinning.   
He was in a good mood this morning, which was only dampened by the realization that he had to fly back to Tokyo that evening.

“So what happens next?” he asked.  
“What do you mean?” Makoto said, and his sad smile was back.   
“Well, quite simply I... like you,” Sousuke said, and he was amazed at how easy it was to put it to words.  
“A lot,” he added slowly, as Makoto's green eyes stared at him over a piece of buttered toast.   
“But I need to get back to work tomorrow and I'd like to know if we can come to some sort of... arrangement.”  
“You want to see me again,” Makoto whispered and it wasn't so much a question as a slightly awed realization.  
“If you'll have me.”  
Makoto looked, for want of a better word, shocked. He kept blinking and staring at the table, lowering his head. He carefully put down his mug and rubbed the back of his neck.  
“Makoto? I don't want to pressure you or make you uncomfortable. We could just call it a-”  
“No.” Makoto looked up. “I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not... used to this.”  
Sousuke gritted his teeth.  
“I would like that,” Makoto said, “I would... love to see you again. That sounds really nice.”  
And he smiled in a way that reached all the way to those big green eyes.  
Sousuke could swear his heart was about to explode.

 

They exchanged numbers and Sousuke was quietly giddy for the rest of the day.   
He silently smirked to himself through packing, while hugging Nana Matsuoka goodbye, in the car driving them to the airport, all the way onto the plane, where Rin was finally fed up and elbowed him in the stomach.   
“He got you good, huh,” Rin said, throwing him a sideways glance.  
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Sousuke replied, small smile curling his lips as he looked out of the window.

 

* * *

 

Sousuke dropped his travel bag in a corner as soon as he stepped inside of his apartment.   
He stepped into the shower and warm water washed away the soreness in his muscles, the lingering feeling of tiredness and sweat that always came with traveling.   
He closed his eyes and stood there, letting it splash over him while the room fogged up.   
A deep green gaze looked at him in his imagination.   
Fuck, Rin was right. He got him good.   
When he finally stepped out of the stall, Sousuke found himself checking the mirror, if only for a moment. It was a plain old fogged up mirror. No sneaky messages, no nothing.  
“Stop being stupid,” Sousuke mumbled, and wiped away some of the condensation.   
The Sousuke in the mirror looked just like regular Sousuke, but with an added glint in his eye he hadn’t had in a while. He grinned at his reflection.   
Fuck, he got him good.

He walked into his tiny studio and poured himself a shot of sake, savouring the heat in his gut and the small tingles up his arm.   
He went to bed that night and dreamed of nothing.  
He woke up at four fifteen and stared at the ceiling, listening to the soft hum of traffic outside.  
At least he was used to this shit.

 

He'd promised himself he'd wait until at least noon to text Makoto, but he woke up that morning with a message already on his phone.  
“Did you make it home alright?”  
Big brother vibe, huh?   
Sousuke answered it and got up to brush his teeth, already feeling slightly better about this day.  
The sea really must have done a number on his mind.   
He pushed the weirder memories of the last few days away and replaced them all with images of Makoto and his green eyes and his soft hair and his arms around Sousuke’s chest.

 

* * *

 

Gold and copper leaves fell in whirls around Sousuke while he walked to the train station.  
It was only ten minutes from his house and he walked this route every day.   
Usually, he was barely awake, and certainly not sober when he did.   
Right now, however, he was nervous, and every sight he encountered burned itself into his memory. The convenience store, poster for a volleyball match in the window, the small yakisoba place that provided most of his weekend nourishment, the park where old people would sit in summer, the piles of brightly coloured leaves on the sidewalk.  
He strolled up the steps to the pedestrian bridge crossing the highway and hopped down at the other side to duck into the station proper. The entranceway always smelled of urine, but once you got past that, the tangy smell of coffee from the stall in the middle of the main hall hit your nose.   
He was thirteen minutes early.   
Sousuke paced the hall with a stupid, mad grin on his face.  
It was still there when the train rolled in and Makoto stepped out, looking very much like Makoto, which meant that he looked amazing.   
He smiled his big smile, the real one, when Sousuke pulled him into a hug and he had to resist the urge to twirl him around like some sappy movie character. 

 

“I never really considered Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to be a horror flick, Makoto,” Sousuke said that evening as they lay on the couch in front of the tv.   
Makoto was draped across Sousuke's chest.  
“What he's doing to those children is awful!” he said, frowning deeply.  
Sousuke chuckled and carded his fingers through his lover's hair.   
“Want me to switch the channel?” he said, “or the activity?”   
He lifted a single eyebrow and tugged Makoto towards him for a peck on the lips, blinking in surprise when the young man kissed him long and deep instead.   
“I thought you'd never ask,” Makoto whispered, biting Sousuke's bottom lip.  
He rolled off the couch and pulled Sousuke up, grinning at him from beneath heavily lidded eyes.  
“Why didn't you say something sooner?” Sousuke smirked, following him to the bedroom.  
“And come across as needy?” Makoto chuckled.  
“Oh you were being bashful?”  
Makoto pulled Sousuke towards him.  
“I was being patient,” he muttered in his ear, before yanking his shirt up.

 

A few hours later, Sousuke woke up to the sound of a small whimper.   
He blinked at the clock: 3:26.  
There it was again. A small sound, barely perceptible.   
He frowned and turned to the man next to him.   
Makoto was dreaming.   
Obviously so.   
His eyes twitched back and forth under his eyelids and he made a face like he was in pain.   
“Makoto?”  
He'd never seen him like this. Cold sweat was breaking out on the young man's forehead and he looked like he was deeply upset.  
“Makoto,” Sousuke tried again. “Wake up, it's a dream.”  
Makoto was mumbling something, but Sousuke couldn't quite make it out.  
Delicately he placed a hand on the his shoulder. Makoto shuddered.  
Sousuke shook him gently.  
“Makoto!”  
Makoto's eyes shot open, unseeing, and he thrashed about in a panic.  
“Makoto, it's me.”   
“It hurts,” Makoto whispered and he blinked up at Sousuke, suddenly realizing where he was. He gasped and stared, eyes thick with fear.  
“Fuck, are you ok?” Sousuke said, but Makoto just heaved and buried his head in Sousuke's shoulder. He was sobbing.  
“Makoto? Hey it's alright. It was just a dream,” Sousuke shushed, softly petting Makoto's hair while he calmed down.  
“Gosh, I'm sorry.” Makoto sat up and quickly wiped his eyes. When he looked up, he was smiling at Sousuke. “Didn't mean to worry you, there.”  
“You alright? You wanna talk about it?” Sousuke tried, but Makoto was already throwing his legs over the side of the bed.   
“Like you said, just a bad dream,” Makoto chattered and he got up. “I just need a drink. Please go back to bed.”  
“Uh, are you sure, cause I could-”  
Makoto waved him off.   
“Please,” he said, and walked out of the bedroom.  
Sousuke laid back and stared at the ceiling, listening to Makoto clatter in the kitchen and walk around the living room. 

 

He woke up that morning to the unmistakable smell of breakfast.   
He stumbled out of bed and found Makoto in the kitchen, hard at work boiling an egg.   
“You're getting better at this,” he whispered, softly nuzzling Makoto's shoulder.  
“Aww, I wanted to surprise you,” Makoto smiled, but he happily pulled Sousuke closer to kiss his cheek.   
Makoto looked pale despite his cheerfulness, and his eyes were a bit puffy.   
“You get any sleep last night?” Sousuke asked, setting the table.  
“Mmm. Sorry to worry you. I went to sit down on the couch and I must have dozed off.”  
Sousuke simply hummed and poured himself a cup of coffee. 

 

They walked around the city that day, with Sousuke showing Makoto some of the lesser known tourist spots. He was careful not to plan too much, since Makoto seemed to be a bit under the weather.   
However, Makoto refused to acknowledge this. He vehemently denied feeling anything but great whenever Sousuke suggested taking it easy.   
Stubborn bastard, Sousuke thought and he loudly proclaimed to be hungry from all the walking.  
“I could go for some cake, you?” he said, pulling Makoto in a nearby tea salon. 

 

That night, he fed Makoto soup and curry, trying to keep the worry from showing in his face.  
The young man spent a long time in the bathroom while Sousuke cleaned up, and when he came out, he was looking a bit healthier, but also very distressed. His green eyes were a bit duller than they should be, and he kept looking away, avoiding his gaze.  
Sousuke walked up and softly pressed his lips to his forehead.   
“Oh,” Makoto blinked up, “Do you want to...”  
“Let's just take a nap for a bit,” Sousuke said softly and he pulled Makoto onto the bed with him.  
He held him there, close to his chest while Makoto's fingers stroked his upper arm.  
“You want to tell me what's going on?” Sousuke whispered into his hair.  
Makoto's hand paused for a second before weakly grappling at his skin.   
Sousuke sighed and held him closer.

 

When he woke up in the middle of the night, he was alone in bed.  
He shambled into the living room where Makoto stood over his bag with his back to him.   
“Makoto? What are you doing?” he said softly.  
“I'm sorry, I need to go,” Makoto muttered, closing the zipper.  
“Did something happen? Is your family ok?”  
“Yes, they're fine. I just...”  
Sousuke frowned and crossed the room, turning Makoto toward him.  
He was pale, much paler than Sousuke remembered. His lips were dry and brittle, and there were deep, dark rings under his eyes.  
“Fuck, Makoto. Forget about going back home, we need to get you to a doctor,” Sousuke said.  
“No, that won't help,” Makoto whined, “I need to...”  
“What?” Sousuke said, and Makoto seemed to whither even further under his steady gaze.

“I need to go back,” he whispered, “I know what this is. It happened last time I was here. I can't stay. I'm sorry.”  
Makoto looked utterly miserable. He was staring at his feet, breathing fast.  
“I shouldn't have come here,” he said in a low voice, “I never should have let it get this far. I'm sorry.”  
Sousuke frowned. He reached out to Makoto's shoulder. “Look if you're homesick I-”  
“You don't understand,” Makoto said, louder now, “I can't leave! Whenever I go away it feels like a part of me is missing. It's like my lungs are gone. I can't be who you need me to be, Sousuke. I'm sorry. It's over.”  
Makoto pulled away from the stunned Sousuke and zipped up his jacket. There were tears in his eyes now.  
“Wait. What the fuck are you talking about?” Sousuke blinked, his brain running to keep up with what was going on.  
“I need to go. I'm sorry for wasting your time.”  
“Will you fucking wait?” Sousuke grabbed Makoto's wrist in a desperate effort to slow him down. If they could just talk, if he could figure out what was bothering him...  
“I can't stay here!” Makoto screamed into Sousuke's shocked face.   
Big green eyes stared at him from above dark rings. They were pools of sorrow.   
There was fear in there, and a deep, despairing sadness. Loneliness, too, perhaps, but most of all there was resolve.   
One look told Sousuke he was not going to slow Makoto down. Not even a little.  
He let go of his wrist.   
Makoto gathered his belongings quickly.  
He whispered a soft 'I really am sorry' and he was out the door, leaving Sousuke alone in an apartment that felt bare and cold.

 


	2. A funeral

Iwatobi felt exactly like it did when Sousuke had last seen it, only colder.  
Winter had turned the trees into sad skeletons and the wind coming off the sea was sharp like a spray of needles, but otherwise it was much the same.  
Nothing ever changed in this town, Sousuke thought, except when people left it, one way or another. 

He kept an arm out to support a blubbering Rin while they walked toward the casket to say their goodbyes.  
The loss of his grandmother had hit Rin hard. They'd always been close.  
Sousuke had a soft spot for her, too. The little stubborn lady in her shack by the sea.  
So he stood here at her funeral and physically helped Rin stay upright while people made speeches about how much they'd miss her.

Rin's younger sister Gou had found the old woman when she came round one morning to check up on her. She lay on the beach, waves lapping at her gray hair, looking almost as if she was asleep.  
Drowned, according to the autopsy.  
Now five days later, Gou was still visibly shaken, cradled as she was in the arms of her mother.  
The old woman had never feared the ocean. Neither had Rin.  
It was something Sousuke thought a bit odd, considering how many people they'd both lost to it.  
Rin's grandfather, Rin's father, a host of ancestors, all sunk to the depths.  
And now Nana Matsuoka too.  
Sousuke quietly said a small prayer before leading Rin out of the ceremony.  
Makoto was in the crowd with pity in his eyes.  
Sousuke diverted his gaze, looking straight ahead as he walked by.

 

* * *

 

That evening, Rin insisted on sleeping in Nana Matsuoka's house.  
He wanted to protect it, say goodbye to it, mourn in the presence of his grandmothers belongings. Sousuke wasn't entirely sure what the idea was, but he'd be damned if he let Rin go at it alone.  
So they set up camp in the guest bedroom again and Rin spent the evening weepily recalling memories while downing the half bottle of vodka they'd brought.  
When he was well and gone, Sousuke dragged him to his futon and tucked him in.  
He sat in the room, staring at his friend while he sunk into unconsciousness and snored softly.  
The fucking endless crashing of the sea seeped into the house and it was starting to irritate him again.  
The pain in his shoulder mixed with the waves, the creaks, the image of a weeping Gou, the sorrow in Makoto's green eyes. It was too much, Sousuke thought. Everything was swirling around in his head and he needed to calm it down before he punched something.  
He needed....  
He sighed.

Sousuke put on his shoes and jacket, checking up on Rin a final time before heading out the door.  
It wouldn't take long. If he went across the beach, he could reach the convenience store, quickly grab some whiskey, maybe something for breakfast, and be back in less than an hour.

 

It didn't work out that way.  
There was a figure sitting on the beach as he neared Iwatobi proper and Sousuke didn't even have to look hard to know who it was. He kept walking, keeping his head down, until an excited bark made him look up.  
Shiro was running towards him, tail wagging. Behind her, the figure in the sand got up.  
“Hey buddy,” Sousuke sighed, petting the dog with a pained expression on his face.  
“Shiro, come here.”  
Makoto's voice stung like a knife, but the dog ignored him. She jumped up, sniffing and licking Sousuke's face, getting wet sand all over him.  
“Shiro, please...” Makoto was getting closer and the last thing Sousuke wanted right now was to see him again. 

He'd spent weeks sending texts without a single reply until he'd finally given up and just drowned his feelings during a long binge that nearly cost him his job.  
He was over it now, he didn't need to see those sparkling green eyes anymore.  
“I need to go, buddy,” he told the dog and took a step back.  
But Shiro, lovable, excited Shiro, ran circles around his legs and Sousuke, in his hurry to get away, didn't see the soft body behind his foot as he took another step and tripped, falling heavily onto the sand.  
A sharp pain stung his shoulder.

“Sousuke!” Makoto's hand pulled the dog away and he was kneeling next to him.  
“Are you ok?” There was worry in that voice and Sousuke wasn't about to deal with this.  
“I'm fine, leave me – ghk” He moved to push Makoto away but his arm completely gave out. It felt like ground glass was rubbing between his bones as he moved.  
“Oh no, is it your shoulder?”, said the anxious voice of Makoto, and gentle hands tugged at his jacket while he closed his eyes and groaned. 

 

Sousuke sat on Makoto's couch with an icepack on his shoulder and Shiro's head in his lap, quietly cursing himself.  
It was warm in here. His skin tingled from the sudden change in temperature.  
The dog whined mournfully and he brushed its head, finding some comfort in the honest care that the animal showed him.  
“It's alright, buddy,” Sousuke mumbled.  
Makoto came down the stairs with a tube of gel in his hand and sat next to him while Sousuke looked away.

“I'm... I'm sorry,” Makoto said. He carefully applied the gel to Sousuke's shoulder, stopping now and then when he heard a pained hiss.  
“Shiro's an excitable puppy, it happens.” Sousuke said eventually.  
“Not just for that,” Makoto said, so quiet he could barely hear it.  
“Sometimes these things just don't work out,” Sousuke grumbled.  
It felt like a platitude. Like something he had to say for the world to stay in its proper order.  
He doubted either of them believed a word of it.

“I left because I felt it was best for both of us, ” Makoto proceeded from somewhere to his side, “I'm not good with relationships, you see. Most people leave me fairly fast. When they stick around, it's usually worse.”  
Makoto's words halted, but his fingers kept rubbing gentle circles on Sousuke's shoulder, spreading the cold gel around and soothing the pain.  
Sousuke was so tired. There was a throbbing in his head, a dull ache that made it hard to think. The cold wind outside seemed to have numbed his brain, while the heat inside was fogging it up and the whole thing became a murky mess of swirling images.  
Sousuke had to close his eyes to try and tone it down.

“It felt different with you, somehow,” Makoto said quietly and the calm movement of his fingers seemed to spread through Sousuke's arm, into his chest.  
“I should have ended it sooner but you were so... I'm sorry.”  
Makoto sounded so fragile, Sousuke thought. He wanted to say something comforting, but his brain kept churning, making it impossible to form words.  
“There's so much wrong with me,” Makoto babbled on, thoughts that had been buried for ages spilling out in a single gulp, “I'll always be stuck here and I know, even if you won't admit it, that I can never make you happy. I didn't want to keep disappointing you.” 

Sousuke turned his head to the man massaging his arm.   
“I was so afraid of losing you, that I forgot I'm no good for you,” Makoto said and Sousuke looked straight into those big green eyes and the endless sadness behind them.  
The whirling mud in Sousuke's head stopped.  
“Makoto.”  
“I'm so sorry,” Makoto whispered, but Sousuke's lips were already on his, his arm already around him and for a second it seemed like Makoto would push him away but instead he melted, hungrily returning his kisses.  
“I'm sorry,” Makoto said feebly, in between pecking Sousuke's jaw and making his way down his neck.  
“Stop saying stupid shit,” Sousuke whispered and the whole mess in his head had cleared up to show one and only one thing: Makoto, right here in his arms.

 

Sousuke woke up in the middle of the night, slightly disoriented and with something heavy on top of him.  
He blearily flailed around until a muffled grunt made him stop.  
Looking down he could see Makoto draped on top of him, head buried in his chest.  
He was breathing softly, dead to the world again.  
They were on the couch, and one of them had had the presence of mind to pull a blanket over them.  
Sousuke smiled and rolled his shoulder. Most of the pain had died down. Makoto was good with those hands.  
Then he blinked when he heard a soft sound from upstairs.  
“Shiro?” he whispered.  
There was movement, a snuffling sound and Shiro came into view, nuzzling Sousuke's arm.  
Shit, Sousuke thought.

He concentrated.  
There it was again. A soft splash coming from above him.  
Gently, probably more gently than necessary considering Makoto's sleeping habits, Sousuke slipped from underneath him.  
He tucked him in again and patted the floor by the couch, finding his clothes and quietly putting them on.

Splish.  
Fuck, he was going to have to check, wasn't he.  
Sousuke took a deep breath and grabbed the first thing he could get hold of, which happened to be a desk lamp.  
Slowly, and very quietly, he crept up the stairs.  
Shiro followed, wagging her tail.  
“Shoo,” Sousuke whispered, pushing the dog down again, “Go protect Makoto.”  
The animal sat at the bottom of the stairs, tilting her head, while Sousuke ascended.  
The upstairs hallway was empty. Through the window he could see that the weather had turned. Heavy wind was blowing dark clouds towards them and the tide had come in. Most of the beach had disappeared behind a swirling mass of black water.  
Splash.  
Of course it was the bathroom.  
Something soft brushed against his hand as he stood in the hallway and Sousuke nearly jumped out of his skin. Shiro looked up at him innocently.  
Sousuke made an ineffectual attempt at sending her downstairs, before swallowing and slowly making his way down the hall.  
The dog padded after him.

Bloop.  
Heart beating in his throat, Sousuke nudged open the bathroom door.  
He could see movement inside.  
He flipped the light switch.  
And stood stock still.

There was a boy in the tub.  
He sat up to his chest in clear bath water and appeared to be playing with a small floating dolphin toy.  
He looked up at Sousuke with big blue eyes from underneath a black fringe.  
“Who the fuck are you?” Sousuke said.  
The kid ignored him, instead smiling at Shiro, who trotted past and sat next to the bath.

Bloop.  
The child batted the toy, making it go under before bopping up again.  
He was pale. Much, much too pale. His skin was almost translucent. Sousuke found it hard to watch, the way this child almost glowed. Staring at him too long caused static behind his eyes.  
“What are you doing here?” Sousuke tried again.  
The boy looked up at him, deep blue eyes stared straight through him, causing a sting of a headache. The child frowned.  
Downstairs, Sousuke's ring tone started playing.  
Sousuke blinked. Who the hell would call him in the dead of night?  
When he looked back, the boy was gone. The tub was empty.  
Nothing in this bathroom except the dog sitting in the middle, whining.

Sousuke stood there, gaping, trying to regain whatever semblance of sanity he had left.  
Downstairs, his phone went off again.  
Shit, he was gonna wake up Makoto like that.  
Stepping backwards carefully, he moved into the hallway and flicked on the light.  
Nothing here.  
Outside the window, the first drops of rain were falling.

When he was halfway down the stairs, Sousuke's phone went off a third time.  
Makoto, on the couch, moved briefly in his sleep.  
Sousuke sprinted across the room and grabbed the device.  
Rin's number.  
He picked it up and heard nothing but static on the other side. Listening intently, he could swear he heard a whispered plea for help, right before the line went dead.  
“Rin?” Sousuke muttered to his phone.  
He checked his messages.  
His voice mail contained two missed calls, both exactly six seconds of static.  
White heat of panic in his throat, he called Rin's number.  
'Click'  
“Hey, Matsuoka Rin here,”  
“Rin, where are you, what the fuck is-” Sousuke whispered angrily.  
“Drop your message after the beep.”  
'Beeeep'  
“Fuck,” Sousuke groaned into the line, “Rin, what the hell is going on? Call me.”

He angrily closed the call and squinted at Shiro, who had waddled down and gave him a sympathetic whine.  
“Shit, I need to go,” Sousuke told her.“If something happened to Rin....”  
Why the fuck was he explaining himself to a dog?  
Sousuke pulled on his shoes and jacket, before glancing up the stairs. It was completely quiet.  
“Take good care of him,” he told Shiro before throwing a final, torn glance at the young man dozing on the couch.  
He'd text him on the way. He would apologize to him later and hope to god that Makoto would forgive him.

 

When Sousuke stepped out of the house, rain was pouring down. The wind whipped at the trees and a storm was brewing overhead.  
He'd have to hurry.  
Sousuke took a few steps down the stairs toward the beach and stopped.  
The tide was high. Very high.  
From his vantage point on the stairs, the whole beach front looked like a giant mass of black.  
'The water is alive', Makoto had told him and at this point even someone as sarcastic as Sousuke was willing to believe that.  
It felt like the sea was watching him, daring him to come closer.  
A sharp wind whipped rain in his face, cold drops hitting his skin like pebbles.  
He knew, deep down, that whatever water was on that beach was shallow.  
He decided not to risk it.

Instead he ran up the stairs and onto the road that was carved into the side of the mountain.  
He was just gonna have to sprint and hope he wouldn't get lost.  
Sousuke raced down the mountain road, cursing the moment he'd stopped being a proper athlete and started being an insomniac drunk.  
He actually managed to flag down a car to take him part of the way there, which was why he was still alive and breathing, barely, when he kicked open the door to Nana Matsuoka's house.

“Rin!” Sousuke stormed in.  
The house was dark. Nothing was moving.  
“Rin!” Sousuke yelled again.  
He rushed through the hallway turning on the light.  
“Oh please, oh please.”  
He threw open the door to the guest bedroom.  
Rin sat up, squinting blearily at the light streaming through the door.  
“Sousuke?”  
“Fuck! Rin what the fuck!”  
“Ow! Shit, why are you so loud?” Rin moaned, pushing both hands to his ears with a pained expression on his face.  
“Phone,” Sousuke said, “Where's your phone!”  
Rin wailed for a moment, before he looked up and saw Sousuke's face.  
“Living room,” he pointed and Sousuke sped off.

He found the smartphone casually lying on the table.  
Sousuke checked the call history. They weren't there.  
The last person Rin had called was Gou, at eight in the evening.  
Sousuke sagged down to the floor.  
They weren't there.

Rin entered the room with a blanket around his shoulders.  
“Want to tell me what's going on?” he said, groggily curling up on the couch.  
“You called me,” Sousuke said, “You called me. Three times. And there was nothing but static and I was worried sick. I...”  
Sousuke pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened it.  
It looked like water had gotten in during his trip. The thing was very much dead.  
“Fuck.”  
“Are you ok?” Rin said softly.  
“I think I'm going insane,” Sousuke answered.  
“How much did you drink?”  
“Not a drop.”  
“Oh,” Rin said and he sat there quietly for a moment.  
Then he blinked, looking Sousuke up and down. “Dude, why are you drenched?”

 

* * *

 

 _'Sousuke asked me to txt you he says hes very sorry he thought I was dying'_  
“Something like that?” Rin said, grinning widely.  
_'Also his phone broke hell come by to apologize'._  
Sousuke just groaned and drank his second cup of coffee.  
The morning sun was stinging his eyes.  
Outside, the storm had died down, leaving nothing behind but a bunch of debris on the beach.  
A quick inspection had turned up nothing broken on the house, so now they sat in the kitchen, attempting to make a breakfast out of some old rice crackers and an ancient jar of jam.  
“I can't believe you hooked up with him again,” Rin said, swirling an aspirin around the bottom of a glass of fizzing water.  
“There's a lot of things I can't believe,” Sousuke answered.  
Rin waited for the powder to dissolve, then downed the whole thing in one go.  
“Eugh,” he said, making a face.

They sat in silence, Rin leaning his head on his hands, puffy eyes looking at Sousuke inquisitively.  
“Rin,” Sousuke finally said, staring at his cup, “do you know anything about the house Makoto lives in?”  
“I don't even know where Makoto lives,” Rin said, pulling some crackers out of a packet.  
“It's across the street from the Tachibana family, just up the steps. Big house, number... four I think.”  
Rin looked up.  
“Makoto lives there?” he said and there was a weird fracture in his voice.  
“Yeah”, Sousuke said, studying his friend's face. “Did something happen in that house?”  
“Why would you think that?” Rin asked, entirely too nonchalantly. He was eyeing the label on the jam with interest.  
“There's something.... off about it,” Sousuke managed.  
When Rin didn't respond, he continued.  
“And it's super cheap. I mean, he can afford rent on a big thing like that by working part-time in a god damned supermarket... Look, just fucking tell me what you know.”  
He pouted at Rin, who sighed deeply.  
“The Nanases lived there. They're old friends of the Tachibanas. He's probably getting a friend discount or something.”  
“Ok”, Sousuke said slowly, “now what is it you're not telling me.”

Rin had never been good at lying or hiding his feelings. And Sousuke had known him long enough to discern that Rin was utterly uncomfortable right now. He almost squirmed under his steady gaze.  
“The Nanases moved abroad years ago,” Rin finally said, taking a deep breath and noticeably working himself up to proceed.  
“Because their kid died.”  
Oh, Sousuke thought.  
“Haru was... our age. He and Makoto grew up together and were basically attached at the hip. We were friends. I was in swim club with them. We had plans to...”  
Rin took a breath.  
“Anyway, he passed away and not long after that I moved to Australia and, well, I didn't come back to town for a while.”  
“What happened to him?” Sousuke said slowly.  
Rin was looking at his fingers, turning the jam lid over and over.  
“Rin, what happened?” Sousuke said. “Don't fucking tell me he drowned too.”  
His friend was quiet, staring while the lid turned and turned. His eyes were starting to water.  
“He was one of the best swimmers I've ever met,” he whispered, before quickly leaving the table and running out of the kitchen.

 

Sousuke frowned into his coffee.  
Man, fuck this place. No wonder everyone was so messed up.  
But something nibbled at the back of his mind.  
He'd heard that name before.  
Haru.  
He milled it over in his head, staring out at the beach through the little kitchen window.  
Haru.  
Black water rising and someone is screaming something.  
It's a child's voice: “Haru! Haruuuu!”  
Sousuke blinked at the memory.  
Fuck, the thought again.

 

Sousuke helped his friend clean and box up part of the Matsuoka house while he made plans, using the medium of Rin's phone, to see Makoto again that night.  
They also arranged for Rin's mother to pick them up and drop him off in the middle of town.

He watched them drive away and adjusted the overnight bag slung across his shoulder. He was honestly quite happy that he'd managed to talk Rin into staying with his mother.  
They no doubt both needed it.  
And it was one thing less for him to worry about.  
Gritting his teeth, he set off down the steps.

Makoto had just gotten home when he arrived. He opened the door with one hand, while trying to tie an apron with the other.  
“I'm so sorry,” Sousuke started.  
“Don't be.”  
“I walked off in the middle of the night and you must have wondered what the fuck happened-”  
“It's ok,” Makoto said softly.  
“It's just that Rin was in that house alone and I swear he called me-”  
“Really, it's alright,” Makoto said.  
“And then my phone died so I couldn't text you-”  
“I know,” Makoto said and he was trying to suppress a smile now.  
“And all of this sounds like a really lame string of excuses-”  
“Sousuke,” Makoto said gently.  
“And I don't want you to think I'm bailing on you,” Sousuke said, looking straight into those deep green eyes, “Because trust me, I'm not.”  
“Sousuke. I believe you.” And Makoto smiled his happy smile and pulled Sousuke closer with both hands so he could place a lingering kiss on his lips.  
“Now please come inside before all the cold gets in.”

Makoto walked into the kitchen, where he was preparing some instant noodles.  
“Truth is, I feel guilty, because I kind of jumped you when I should have realized that Rin needed your support.” He stirred the pot with a pair of cooking chopsticks. “So how about we call it even, and start fresh?”  
“I can live with that,” Sousuke said, coming up next to him and peering into the pot quizzically.  
Makoto chuckled.  
“Does this taste ok to you?” He pulled out the chopsticks and offered Sousuke a taste.  
He made a face. “That's just salt and chili, Makoto.”  
“Well that's how it came in the packet,” Makoto pouted.  
Sousuke straightened and started opening cupboards.  
“Right,” he said, “Do you have any vegetables in the house? Ginger? Eggs? Peanut butter?”  
Makoto just frowned at him. “Peanut butter?”  
Sousuke grinned, grabbing what looked like an ancient jar from the back of the cabinet. “Let me show you some tricks I learned in college.”

 

That night, Sousuke waited until Makoto was fast asleep.  
The young man was breathing softly, heart beating a slow, steady drum against Sousuke's chest.  
Carefully he moved Makoto's head to a pillow and slipped out of his arms, stopping only briefly when he grunted in his sleep. Sousuke would never understand how Makoto managed to be such a heavy sleeper, but at this moment in time he was happy for it.  
He motioned Shiro to stay in the bedroom and slipped out, closing the door behind him.  
Sousuke had brought a small flashlight with him. Enough to see by while he walked through the hallway and into the dark bathroom, but not enough to scare potential undead children.  
Or so he assumed.  
Feeling particularly stupid, he closed the lid on the toilet and sat down in the dark, waiting.

 

He wasn't sure how long it took, but the boy did appear.  
A bird passing by the window made Sousuke look out, and when he glanced back, the child was sitting on the edge of the tub, mournfully looking at his feet.  
Sousuke swallowed.  
“Haru?”  
The boy blinked up at him.  
“Why are you here?” Sousuke whispered.  
Deep blue eyes stared at him, as if grasping into the depths of his soul.  
Then Haru looked away and pouted.  
“You don't wanna talk?” Sousuke asked solemnly, “Or maybe you can't talk.”  
“You're mean.”  
The voice was young and strangely melodic. Sousuke couldn't so much hear it, as feel it in the back of his head.  
“Oh,” he said, remembering their first encounter, “sorry about that. You kinda scared me.”  
“Leave Mako-chan alone.”  
“Why?”, Sousuke asked, “I like... Mako-chan. We're friends.”  
“Mako-chan is _my_ friend.”  
“Is that why you're still here?” Sousuke asked, heart growing heavy.  
“Mako-chan is my friend,” the child said again, looking at his feet, “He's the only one left.”  
Sousuke swallowed. He didn't know what to say to that.  
“Leave him alone.”  
Sousuke took a deep breath.  
“I'm afraid I can't do that, Haru,” he said, as gently as he could, “I like him too much to walk away now.”  
The boy shot an angry glance at him and the next moment he was gone.  
Sousuke sighed and rested his head against the cold tile above the toilet.  
Fuck.

 

Shiro's bark rose him from his dark thoughts and a minute later he could hear Makoto walk through the hallway.  
“Sousuke?” The bathroom door opened and Makoto's head popped through, blinking sleepily.  
“Why are you sitting here by yourself in the dark?”  
He turned on the light. The dog was whining and clawing at the floor behind him.  
“You're super pale,” Makoto exclaimed, delicately caressing the creases in Sousuke's forehead before tugging him upright. “Come on, I'm making tea.”

Sousuke did not protest as Makoto led him down the stairs and pushed him onto a kitchen chair.  
He sat quietly while the young man fussed with tea and hot water, before finally placing a steaming mug in front of Sousuke's face.  
He inhaled the scent and closed his eyes, very aware of two worried green eyes staring at him.  
Right, he thought, he may as well do this now.  
“Tell me about Haru,” Sousuke said quietly.  
There was a little shocked breath from Makoto and Sousuke looked up to see him frowning.  
He felt strangely calm, his teal eyes steadily observing Makoto who seemed lost, grappling at things to say.  
“If we're going to 'start fresh' maybe we should clear this out,” Sousuke said gravely.  
Makoto swallowed and nodded. 

“I was going to tell you,” he started, “I just didn't want to worry you or make it seem like I was...”  
He trailed off while Sousuke sat, chin in his hand, quietly looking at his lover over two steaming cups of green tea.  
“I guess you found out,” Makoto said, “but Haru was my best friend. We were very close. He... he passed away when we were ten.”  
“He drowned,” Sousuke supplied gently.  
Makoto nodded, knitting his eyebrows together as he strained to go on.  
“He's dead,” Makoto whispered, “And if I'd just jumped after him. If I'd found something for him to grab...”  
Carefully, Sousuke laid a hand on Makoto's.  
“It was winter and a girl's scarf had flown into the river by the harbor”, Makoto went on, “And Haru was trying to fish it out when he fell in. I remember coming up and seeing him fall and being so scared. I wanted to help him but my body just... froze.”  
Makoto fell quiet, his breath shallow. He kept trying to swallow a lump in his throat.  
“So you stood on the shore and screamed his name but the water came up and pulled him down”, Sousuke felt himself saying,  
Makoto stared at him for a second. “Did Rin tell you this?” he asked, voice like a broken piano wire.  
“Rin wasn't there,” Sousuke said simply, “You were just a child, Makoto. It wasn't your fault.”  
And Makoto sat across the table, breathing fast while Sousuke rubbed a thumb over the back of his hand.  
“Then how do you-” Makoto's lashes fluttered, trying to blink away the tears.  
Sousuke took a deep breath.

“I know how this is going to sound, Makoto, but please listen to me. This... Haru. He's  _ haunting  _ you,” Sousuke said, “and everyone that cares about you.”  
Makoto looked up, confused, and pulled back his hand.  
“Please listen to me,” Sousuke repeated, “This town, it's like it's cursed. Every night I sleep here I feel like I'm drowning. People keep dying. And you're here with the memory of a dead friend that's hooked you so deep you physically hurt when you leave.”  
“What is wrong with you?” Makoto said, leaning back.  
“I don't know if it's a ghost or your guilt or whatever it is, but can't you see what's happening?”, Sousuke pressed on, “You live in your childhood friend's house for fuck's sake. You go through this memory every single day and it's making you miserable. You could be so much more but you can't or won't leave and it's-”  
Makoto was giving him a betrayed look and Sousuke felt him slipping away again, like he had in Tokyo.

“Look,” Sousuke said, “I realize it's hard, and what happened to you is awful, but you need to let go of this.”  
Makoto looked up, green eyes suddenly hard as steel.  
“And everything would be fixed if I just forgot all about my childhood,” Makoto said. There was a soft, very scary sort of smile on Makoto's face as he pushed back from the table. “If I just let go of myself and become someone I'm not, if I drop everything to be with you, we would all live happily ever after. That should be easy.”  
He laughed bitterly. “I thought you were better than this, Sousuke.”  
“Please, Makoto, I'm trying to help you!”  
“Stop.” Makoto's voice sounded like ice.  
“I appreciate the gesture, Sousuke, and I understand that you care about me, but I don't need help. Of the two of us, you are the one-” He stopped himself and looked away.  
“I haven't been drinking,” Sousuke growled, getting angry now.

“I think it's best if you leave.” Makoto stood up and turned around, finding something to wipe on the kitchen counter.  
“Makoto, no,” Sousuke pleaded.  
“I'm sorry, but this is... it's too much. There's a hotel in the town square, above the bar we went to. I... I really need to be alone and think for a while.”  
He walked out of the kitchen and grabbed Sousuke's unopened bag, taking it into the hall.  
Sousuke trailed him, defeated. He'd fucked up, he knew, but he saw no decent way to say any of this.  
“Makoto please,” he tried.  
“I'm sorry,” Makoto said firmly, opening the front door. He wasn't even looking at him anymore.  
Behind them, Shiro was barking in distress.  
“Please,” Makoto whispered, looking at his feet with the front door in his hand.  
Sousuke stepped outside and felt it click behind him. Shiro whined somewhere in the hallway.  
“Makoto for fuck's sake don't let him hurt you,” he yelled at the closed door.  
He heard Makoto walk away and shush his dog.  
Sousuke cursed and slung his bag over his good shoulder.

 

Walking out onto the steps next to the house, he pondered his next move.  
It was two, maybe three in the morning. The bar was probably closed.  
What made Makoto think a hotel in a tiny place like this would even be open in the middle of the night?  
But Makoto hadn't been thinking. Not about that.  
It's the sort of thing that happens when you tell someone you talked to the ghost of their childhood friend.  
Grumbling, he took a few steps down to the beach.  
It was a mild winter's night. Not as cold as the day before but it wouldn't be a good idea to sleep outside.  
His best bet was probably Nana Matsuoka's house, he thought. He knew of a window that never shut properly. It would be creepy, yes, but he didn't think the old lady, rest her soul, would mind if he made use of her hospitality once more.

He stepped down onto the beach and started walking, still deep in thought, when something out on the sea caught his attention.  
There was someone in the waves. It seemed like they were struggling.  
Sousuke ran up to the surf.  
He could see arms thrashing and a head appeared above the water for a second before sinking back down.  
A head with a flash of red hair.  
Sousuke felt his heart stop.  
“Rin!”  
He threw off his bag and kicked out his shoes as he sprinted into the waves.  
The sea immediately seized his legs, stinging his skin as he waded in.  
“Rin!” he screamed again, desperately looking around for a sign of life.  
He could discern a hand popping out of the sea further in and jumped, gritting his teeth against the cold, swimming as fast as he could to the place where he'd last seen the figure.  
Rin wasn't there.  
Sousuke took a deep breath and dived under the pitch black water. He spread out his arms, feeling around in the impossible dark.  
He came up and gulped for air. The water was rougher now, it felt like the waves were getting higher.  
“For fuck's sake, answer me!”  
Further up, he saw something float in the water.  
Sousuke struggled to swim towards it. He could feel his muscles lock up from the cold. He wouldn't last much longer. He had to find Rin right now and-  
When he grabbed the thing, it was soft. A white cashmere shawl.

Fuck. He knew this, he knew how this went.  
He started paddling towards the beach again, angrily cursing at himself.  
He hadn't even thought how unlikely this was. His mind had been so full of mud that he hadn't stopped to think about how stupid he was being.  
In the distance, he could hear someone scream.  
“Sousuke!”  
Makoto was on the sand, running towards him.  
“No! Stay back!” Sousuke tried to yell at him to stay the fuck out of the water, that this whole thing was an elaborate trap, but a wave crashed over him, drowning out any sound.  
The cold water was burning his skin. His limbs were going numb.  
But he had to paddle, he had to make it back.  
When he looked around, it was there, just like in the dreams.  
A large wave came up. A huge wall of black water rose into the air, towering above him.  
It crashed over him and he felt himself sink.  
His lungs were ablaze, sea water pouring down his throat. His skin was on fire, his muscles creaked and stopped. His eyes were stinging but he couldn't see. Everything around him was black.

 

* * *

 

Sousuke blinked up at the stars and felt that he couldn't breathe.  
He flailed around for a second, and two strong hands pushed him onto his side before hitting him hard on the back. He coughed, hacking up salt water until his stomach turned and he was vomiting it up, sputtering and heaving in long, wretched gulps.  
Makoto was next to him, doing much the same.  
“Can you feel your fingers?” he asked, in between bouts of his own coughing.  
“If you have hypothermia we need to-” and he devolved into a series of hacks and wheezes.  
Sousuke would laugh at his fretting tendencies, but his lungs didn't feel up to it. So he laid on his back on the beach and just breathed.  
It felt exhilarating.  
“I'm ok,” he said.  
He was cold, yes, but he was fine with it.  
He wiggled his fingers and toes. They hurt like hell.  
Sousuke crawled up a little further to get out of the surf.  
His tired body protested heavily against so much activity, so he laid down again.  
A little further away, Shiro was barking and growling at the sea.

“I thought you couldn't swim,” Sousuke croaked once Makoto stopped convulsing.  
“I can,” Makoto rasped, “I just don't.”  
“Well, thanks. You saved my life.”  
Makoto looked down at him, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.  
“I don't think I did,” he said.  
“Huh?”  
“I remember grabbing you, and you were so heavy and so stiff. And the waves came over us and I panicked and lost control.”  
He stared at his hands for a few moments. “Someone else pulled us out of the water.”

“You shouldn't go jumping in like that, Mako-chan.”  
Makoto chuckled, giving a startled “Well, what else am I supposed to-” before he stopped.  
Sousuke looked up at Makoto, whose face was a strange mixture of fear, regret and happiness. He was looking, wide eyed, at the pale boy sitting next to him.  
“Haru?” It came out like a squawk.  
“You could have drowned, and all that for a bully like Sousuke,” the strangely melodic voice said in the back of his head.  
“Haru, you're...” And Makoto was looking from the boy to Sousuke with tears in his eyes. 

Sousuke looked away, giving them their private moment.  
The dog was growling at the sea and he wondered briefly what she was so angry about. Shiro seemed to enjoy the surf, most of the time.  
Sousuke looked back and it clicked.  
“Makoto, get out of the water,” he said immediately, trying to scramble to his feet.  
The young man hadn't moved an inch since they were dragged onshore and he was still sitting in the middle of the surf, water lapping at his legs.  
But seawater on a beach was translucent, white, frothy.  
It was not, Sousuke was very sure, supposed to be black as ink.  
“Out of the water, NOW.”  
Sousuke struggled to get up while Makoto looked around in a daze. He was still shocked and tears blurred his vision. He didn't seem to notice what was wrong, even when the wave came out of nowhere.

“No!” Sousuke and Haru screamed in unison as it crashed into Makoto, knocking him over.  
Sousuke lunged, just managing to grab onto Makoto's wrist as the sea tried to drag him away.  
His own shoulder was screaming at him, his muscles at their end but he hung on to Makoto like an anchor while the young man scrabbled for purchase on the sand. It wasn't working.  
“Get over here!” he growled at the child, who seemed to snap out of a stupor.  
With the young boy coming up, part of the weight seemed to lift and Sousuke heaved Makoto onto his feet, pulling him across the beach and up the steps, not stopping or letting go until they were inside the house.

 

Hot water had filled Makoto's bathroom with a dense fog, obscuring the mirror and the window.  
Sousuke was on the toilet seat, wrapped in three big towels, massaging his fingers.  
Makoto had sagged onto the floor in a bathrobe and was leaning against the tub.  
Haru sat in the empty bath, hugging his knees.

“What was that?” Sousuke finally asked, breaking the silence.  
“The water is alive,” came the voice of Haru.  
“Did it take you?” Makoto said softly, lip trembling.  
The child nodded and pushed his head between his knees.  
“I'm so sorry,” Makoto whispered.  
“It would have taken you too.”  
There was a long silence again and Sousuke milled the events over in his head.  
“You're not the one that's been trying to drown me, are you” he said.  
Haru's head popped up, hurt look in his eyes.  
“Sousuke should leave Mako-chan alone,” he said. “Like the others.”  
There was a sharp intake of breath from Makoto and then a short little sigh, almost like a chuckle.  
“How many people did you scare away, Haru-chan?” he said.  
The child pouted. “They were trying to take you away. They hurt Mako-chan.”  
Makoto let his head fall back against the bath, blinking at the steam that clung to the ceiling.  
“Some do, yes. But that's just how love goes. I can't have you regulate my life for me, Haru.”

Makoto seemed almost relaxed, as if a heavy weight had fallen off his shoulders. He didn't give the impression that he believed what was happening and Sousuke couldn't blame him.  
“Are you going to leave?” Haru asked, and he sounded small and fragile.  
“I will always be there for you, Haru-chan”, Makoto said without an inkling of hesitation, “I'm no good without Haru.”  
Sousuke went to protest, but two calm green eyes motioned him to sit back down.  
“But I need you to do something for me, okay? You can't scare people anymore. Can you promise me that?” Makoto talked in a warm, almost brotherly voice, soft and soothing.  
Reluctantly, the child nodded.  
“And you'll need to get along with Sou-chan”, he added.  
“What?” Sousuke grunted.  
“Because Sou-chan is not going anywhere either,” Makoto whispered and his green eyes twinkled at him.  
The boy was quiet for a while.  
“I don't like him,” Haru pouted.  
“But I do,” Makoto said, smiling softly.  
“I know.”

 

 

_**Epilogue** _

Wind tugged the last of the spring blossoms off the trees, scattering them across the street where Sousuke walked. He brushed them out of his hair before unlocking the door to his new apartment and he quietly stepped in, taking off his shoes in the hallway.  
He'd been working late, following a match held across the globe, so it was almost midnight when he padded into the kitchen and carefully place the convenience store bag on the table.  
The apartment was dark, save for a light in the bedroom.  
Shiro trotted through the open doorway and greeted him with an affectionate snuffle.  
Sousuke briefly patted her and crept toward the light. He found Makoto in bed, looking slightly disheveled but sleeping deeply like only he could.  
With a small smile on his face, Sousuke walked up and gently took off Makoto's reading glasses, placing them on the side table.  
He plucked a book from underneath his hand – 'Physiology of the developing body' – and placed a pen between the pages before putting it on the floor. Then he leaned in and placed the tiniest of kisses on his forehead before turning off the light.

Walking back to the kitchen, Sousuke could hear a soft sound coming from the bathroom.  
He stood still for a moment, listening.  
Splish.  
“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Sousuke muttered. He walked up to the bathroom door.  
“Haru?” he said in a low voice.  
Bloop.  
“Haru, get out of the tub, I need to take a shower.”  
Splash.

Grumbling under his breath, Sousuke walked into the kitchen and ate two of the rice balls he'd bought, stuffing some extras in the fridge for the next morning. He downed a glass of juice and filled up Shiro's kibble before returning to the bathroom door.  
“Haru, I'm coming in.”  
Plonk.

Sousuke walked in and turned on the light.  
The bath was empty, save for a small dolphin toy at the bottom. He fished it out and gently set it aside, then put a towel down to mop up a small puddle on the floor.  
He brushed his teeth and peeled off his work clothes, stepping into the shower.  
Outside, the first drops of rain fell against the window pane.

When Sousuke, smelling mildly of mint body wash, slipped between the covers, it was raining down hard.  
He delicately placed an arm around the gorgeous young man in his bed, nuzzling his shoulder.  
Makoto hummed lightly in response and Sousuke felt himself sinking into a dreamless sleep.

 

* * *

 

Water fell on the city of Tokyo.  
It was observed by a young boy from the bathroom window of an apartment in the suburbs.  
The pale child watched, unseen, as rain poured in rivulets down the glass.  
He tracked the droplets as they fell on the roof across the street, on the trees outside, dripping onto the pavement where they formed tiny rivers washing away the blossoms.  
Deep blue eyes followed the water down the street where it ran, swirling and tumbling, towards the canal. The boy frowned slightly as he watched it disappear into the ink black mass that waited there.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this started out as a small ghost story, but the High Speed novels are a gold mine for miscellaneous angst, so I'm very sorry for this.  
> It's my first time trying my hand at horror, so do let me know what you thought. Did you see the ending coming from a mile away? I'd love to know.


End file.
